Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Aug 7, 2013 23:24:32 GMT -5
That name again. Xavier. Hollister scribbles it in the margins in his jumbled, mashed-together kana, nodding solemnly as if he's writing down Pierce's concerns with the first two detectives. After that, however, he hesitates. There's a palpable sense of unease about him as he tries to decide whether or not he should tell Mr. Fobster the results of the search. His discomfort is written all over his face.
"At the risk of upsetting you," he says eventually, slowly, and the concern is genuine as he trails off. Firstly, he just doesn't like upsetting people, and aside from some odd connections, so far, all he can tell is that Pierce seems like a decent enough person who's been caught up in some unpleasantness. He also worries because upset people are much harder to listen to; thoughts run together like gibberish and he's not good at filtering just yet. "…No. The body hasn't been found."
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Post by Phobia/Pierce Fobster on Nov 13, 2013 14:57:05 GMT -5
The air of uneasiness is all the answer Pierce really needs. The exhausted hollowness of his expression deepens even before Hollister confirms it with words and he looks away. Will they ever find Xavier’s body? There was such little time before the body rotted away, the remnant picked away by animals. The bones wouldn’t stay together for very long at all after that.
“I can’t say I am too surprised,” Pierce utters softly after a long moment.
Personal worries aside, how was he supposed to explain this to Rook? He’d been given responsibility over this young man and it had ended with… this? It was inexcusable. Rampage had the potential to be a truly frightening soldier but now he was a dead human at the bottom of the river. Even if they never returned to their true forms, they’d at least have one more ally in the midst of this madness.
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Dec 22, 2013 17:20:53 GMT -5
"I really am very sorry," Hollister burbles in what he hopes is a reassuring manner, not really able to take that look on someone. Pierce looks so… so crushed that Hollister can't stand it. In his rush to assuage the disaster before it can worsen, he might step just a little too far. "I can – I can give you my personal number, if you like? You can call me if you want updates on the case."
The words have already left his lips when words not his own flit through his head. Rook. Maybe he shouldn't have offered Rampage but he can't take it back now without raising suspicion, can he? The thought of true forms gives him a sinking feeling. He tries desperately to spin it before his too-honest face gives him away.
"That – that was a little forward of me," he says sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I understand if you'd rather refuse."
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Post by Phobia/Pierce Fobster on Dec 22, 2013 19:23:07 GMT -5
“It’s alright,” Pierce says serenely before the poor detective could trip over himself some more, managing to pull a tired small smile onto his lips. “I suspect any updates at this point will not be anything I’d want to hear immediately.” He saw the bullet go through Xavier’s head after all. If he didn’t die of that, he probably died of drowning and isn’t that a pleasant thought. There’s the slim chance the man did survive, but it’s not something Pierce was willing to bet on.
The worry radiating from Hollister takes on a rather peculiar tone- not quite the anxiety of a social miss-step. Pierce peers at the officer for a moment, curious even as his grief mutes it slightly. It will be something he’ll back on later in suspicion, but quite in the state he is right now.
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Dec 22, 2013 20:58:32 GMT -5
Intent on "listening" with as much attention as he can afford, Hollister is wide open to whatever crosses Pierce's mind. Even if that's the memory of a man being shot in the head – all of it clear as day, brilliant red and dingy greys, the report booming and echoing off the inside of his skull. Detective Dahlia's back. Detective Hunt, gun in hand. For an instant he sees it as though with his own eyes, hears the shouting, the splash.
The instant passes as quickly as it came and it's Hollister's turn to feel faint, face pale, cold sweat prickling out from head to toe. He's seen the dead before, soldiers killed in action, bodies coming back in pieces; he watched Deathcobra die. But it's all so different when he's watching it replay behind his eyes and the memories aren't his own, falling into his head at the speed of a bullet. Hollister sways a little and leans against the doorframe, swallowing anxiously to keep his lunch where it belongs.
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Post by Phobia/Pierce Fobster on Dec 23, 2013 0:53:03 GMT -5
The grief clears up, and the apathetic acceptance on his face takes on a sharper edge as Pierce watches Hollister’s sudden onset of sickness. He feels the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Even from the other side of the fence, the reactions seem familiar.
He doesn’t say anything for a long, long moment, just watching the officer try to recover. What just happened?
“... Are you... alright?” Pierce manages after a moment, gripping the sheets hard enough to blanch his knuckles.
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Dec 23, 2013 21:02:11 GMT -5
Hollister's head is still ringing. He thinks he hears something with his ears, muffled by the pounding behind his eyes, so he just waves one hand to dismiss whatever it is being said. The words eventually echo past the sensation of nails driving through his skull, bringing tears to his eyes, and he gives Pierce a watery, half-hearted smile.
"Headache," he says carefully only once he's sure he won't vomit. This headache isn't like the others, really; they usually roll over him slowly. This one hit like a punch. Like a gunshot. He tries not to think about that, put the stolen memory aside. "Get them all the time." He's just fortunate the nurse who passes behind him wondering how much longer he'll be here can't see his face, white as a sheet with his pupils dilated to wildly different degrees, or he'd probably find himself in an exam room faster than he can say 'I just need some aspirin'. "I'm really sorry for the trouble," he adds with the same genuine apology as before.
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Post by Phobia/Pierce Fobster on Dec 23, 2013 23:25:29 GMT -5
“They all have this fast of an onset?” Pierce asks carefully. He can feel the nausea radiating off of Hollister and thanks whatever merciful deity was out there for the limits of his powers. Unfortunately, it also left him in the dark with his suspicions. Hollister isn’t lying but there was something not right about his honesty.
“Should we call a nurse?” he asks, watching nurse go behind the officer, brows knitting in concern. “You don’t look well at all.”
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Dec 25, 2013 17:06:23 GMT -5
"Sometimes," Hollister lies with the smoothness of a man who wants the subject dropped. He fetches a pill fob from his pocket and squints toward the sink through a haze of colours and grey patches in his vision, ghosts of the memory that isn't his mixing with the auras that usually accompany his headaches. "May I get a drink?" he asks. Even with his head fit to burst, he can't be rude.
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Post by Phobia/Pierce Fobster on Dec 27, 2013 13:50:57 GMT -5
“Help yourself; the water isn’t mine anyways,” Pierce answers, voice gentle and eyes wary. The officer looked like he was about to collapse there. He shifts slightly under the sheets, the heel of a foot at the edge of the bed just in case things did take a turn for the worse.
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Dec 27, 2013 22:41:55 GMT -5
But the sink is still in Mr. Fobster's room! It's only polite to ask first. Hollister fills one of the little paper cups and downs his medication in one great, nervous gulp, then tosses the cup into the nearby waste bin and turns back to the bedridden patient with a deeply apologetic look.
"I'm very sorry for the trouble," he says. "The offer stands, but I probably ought to be on my way. Thank you very much for your help, Mr. Fobster." Because he has been very helpful! Possibly more than he quite realises.
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Post by Phobia/Pierce Fobster on Dec 29, 2013 14:42:22 GMT -5
“It’s fine,” Pierce answers, shaking his head. “I hope you feel better soon. Take care of yourself.” And honestly, he hopes never to see the officer ever again either. For once, it wasn’t purely just because he didn’t like awkwardly meeting with people.
OOC:Wrap?
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